Category: Rugby

Shape of the game has tilted significantly since the latest law tweak that risks tactical monotony and a lack of charm

Steve Borthwick does not normally vent in public so when he does it means he is properly hacked off. “I don’t think any of us want rugby union to turn into Aussie rules,” muttered England’s head coach, not even bothering to downplay his distaste for the new refereeing crackdown on kick chase “escort” defenders that he fears will drag the sport down a path it regrets. “I am not sure everyone wants to watch more kicking and more scrums.”

Slightly ironic, perhaps, coming from a coach whose side barely played any expansive rugby for much of his first year in charge. On  this occasion, though, Borthwick is absolutely within his rights. Inside the last fortnight the shape of the game has tilted significantly, with the odds now in favour of athletic kick chasers who have greater freedom than ever to make life a misery for full-backs underneath high balls.

• South Africa coach predicts hosts’ Steward selection
• Boks make 12 changes from team that defeated Scotland

Whatever else South Africa are expecting from England, it’s not a surprise. The Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus says they picked the team three weeks ago, during a training camp in Jersey. Nothing he’s seen in the way England played against New Zealand and Australia seems to have changed his mind. If anything, the two defeats only confirmed what he already suspected.

“You know, when you lose two games, even if it’s by a point or last-minute try, the pressure does start to build,” Erasmus said, “I’ve been there. I certainly know how quickly it can get to you. And when that happens you normally fall back on to what works for you.”

• Boks coach suggests Borthwick is under the pump
• Steward returns as England make four changes

Steve Borthwick has insisted he is well equipped to block out the ­pressure of England’s current plight after Rassie Erasmus suggested he is under the pump and may feel like he “has a gun against his head”.

A number of ex-England ­stalwarts, including Clive Woodward and Will Carling, have taken aim at ­Borthwick after Saturday’s last-gasp defeat by Australia extended his side’s ­losing run to four. He retains the Rugby Football Union’s “100% ­support” but England could slip to eighth in the world rankings should they fail to arrest their ­losing streak against Erasmus’s ­Springboks on ­Saturday in the first meeting between the sides since last year’s ill-tempered World Cup semi-final.